Kathleen Petyarre

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BORN circa 1938

TRIBE

REGION Utopia

LANGUAGE Anmatyerre

The paintings of Kathleen Petyarre have been compared internationally to those of the minimalist modern artists Mark Rothko and Agnes Martin, not so much for their formal structure: but for what underlies beneath, partially hidden from the observers view. In actuality, Kathelen Petyarre’s paintings are mental territorial maps, which portray her country, and the narrative associated with her inherited Dreaming stories.

Her celebrated works, Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming, when presented on a grand scale, depict the whole of her ancestral country (which covers some 200 square kilometers of the eastern desert of central Australia), whilst other works, like the My Country and Rock-holes series, present a seasonal snapshot within: a close-up of a geographical location spiritually important to the artist.

Since her first works-on-canvas appeared in 1988 in the collaborative Utopia exhibition ‘A Summer Project’ (The Holmes a’ Court Collection), Kathleen Petyarre’s oeuvre has always been identified by her deft minimalist overtures. Now, in the summer of 2004/5, we see a new style of work emerging, bolder, perhaps more abstract, certainly more modern in it’s technicality and presentation, yet each work retains her signature form and elegant style of delicacy. Through her beautiful and highly evocative paintings, Kathleen Petyarre continues to retain her position at the forefront of the Australian contemporary art movement.

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“I want to connect with the viewer by using colour and familiar motifs that are typically associated with the Australian environment. Exaggeration of space and elements create a theatrical representation of the landscape.”

– Christopher Lees

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